Retail establishments generally provide shopping carts to customers for shopping within the retail establishment and transporting the purchased items/products to the customer's vehicle. However, there is a continual loss of shopping carts from retail establishments due to theft of the shopping carts by customers for personal use. Overhead costs of the retail establishment thereby increase to maintain a certain number of shopping carts available to customers.
In addition, while shopping within the retail establishment or while transferring purchased products from the shopping cart into the customer's vehicle, the shopping cart can be left unattended and can roll on its own, striking surrounding structures (e.g., shelves, the customer's vehicle, surrounding vehicles, or the like) and/or people, causing damage to the surrounding structures. Overhead costs of the retail establishment to repair the damaged structures of the retail establishment thereby increase. Similarly, customer costs for repairing a damaged vehicle and/or medical costs may be necessary.